If you look for a good SAO you will be disappointed. Even after completing the game with 41 hours, my opinion didn't change. There are multiple reasons why:

First of all, there is not much exploration in this game. The story tells you where to go and you are not allowed to do detours. There are also not even monster drops if you kill anything. Picking up materials from shiny shopts? Nope you get just Skillpoints. Skill proficiency is also non existent. If you liked to unlock all the Skill in the previous Skilltrees and had fun with it you will also be disappointed in terms of that. The game gives you right from the start almost every Sword Skill except the most powerful for every weapons category. You can only buy weak upgrades for every Sword Skill, a few Passives and a few Buffs.

But the most complaint I have about this game is the ridiculous aggro range about the mobs. I mean they don't aggro as fast as in other SAO games but..... you get forced to kill them because the mobs follow you to the end of the map. And lastly the difficulty. I really likede the fact that you can pick the difficulty at the start of the game, but giving enemies just more HP and Atk doesn't mean it's harder. It just makes things tedious at hard difficulty at the start of the game. So either you're up for a challenge or better pick Normal difficulty. You can change difficulty later in the game, but that requires you to complete chapter 2.

Overall this game feels like a cheap copy on Alicization Lycoris. If you wanna play a good SAO play Lycoris or Hollow Realization. It might be not bad of a game... but this game is a really bad SAO. If you intend to buys it, wait till you can get it for 30€. 80 is way too much for main game and DLC pass.

As a tradition at this point, I am going to continue the reviews of SAO game series.

This is the 6th game in the SAO Game Timeline. For people new to the game series, I would recommend reading/watching the Aincrad Arc, then starting from the 1st game, as the game series takes quite a different path than the Manga, Anime, and novels. You can find the 1st in the series, Hollow Fragments, here.

This game is heavily based off of the previous game, Alicization Lycoris, which can be found here.

As I have not yet finished the game, I will be keeping it relatively short and focused more on the design aspects rather than the story.

At the time of writing, I am on chapter 2, so keep in mind as reading. This review will likely be updated once I finish the game.

+ SAO Shop is GONE. While the Premium/Ultimate editions have some cosmetics, I haven't progressed far enough to see how it's implemented aside from that they exist.
+ Some characters got redesigned and brought back.
+ UI is clean, and players can choose a UI from a handful of presets
+ Settings is just better. You can choose custom battle music from a list as well as a lot of other customization options previous titles were missing.
+ Combat flow is smooth and significantly less buggy than AL (Compared both at time of launch)
+ Equipment and skill set customization has significantly more depth than in AL
+ Several returning/remade assets from titles prior to AL (Including Legendary swords from HR)
+ Less, quicker, and more comprehensive tutorials than AL. Tutorials mostly able to be skipped.
+ Agil (This is a running joke in my SAO Reviews)
- Text and English subs are sometimes off center and slow, even on highest text scroll speed. Additionally the fonts are slightly messier than in previous titles
* Skill tree is closer to that of HF and prior games. This means you don't have the skill upgrade customization that was in AL. Most skills are singular upgrades, but typically more powerful than any of the AL upgrades (IE: Rather than costing less or giving slight boost to stats, some skills gain the ability of blocking/deflecting projectiles, or easier skill connects)

First of all, if you are NOT a fan of SAO or Anime, I wonder why you are here, because you will (most likely) not like the game, no matter what I say is good or bad.

It saddens me every time, when I have to say it, because the setting really has potential, but how it was done is something else. It really reminds me of the Anime vs the Light Novel of Alicization, looks good and flashy, but that’s it. Story gets, as you progress, worse. I liked the beginning of the game, it isn’t the best beginning for an SAO game, but it’s something. Playing through the first few chapters felt like they did an okay-ish game. The middle to end part of the game dragged itself to almost infinity,

(Skip the next part, if you don’t want to spoiler the game)

Spoiler Part:
Just like in Lycoris, the first Chapter was good (in this game the first 4), because they told the Story somewhat interesting, you are on your way of an Peace mission together with the new Original Character, Dorothy, a Dark Knight from the Dark Territory, and try to get peace between the two Nations. You meet a merchant, Kainan, personally one of my favorite characters, because his motives are understandable and his actions sometimes bring humor. You travel with them through the Dark Territory until you get to the Fortress city Obsidia, where you meet the ten Commanders of the Nation. At first you persuade some of the Commanders to your side, but then ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan… Here, when Vecta comes back and the war “breaks out”, you get, and I still don’t understand why, transported out of Underworld and a few minutes later back into it, but instead of where you were before, you are now back at the beginning and you have to travel the same way again… nice. (Teleportation doesn’t work) This is, when it feels like the next Chapters were rushed, because you fight PoH (after he killed Kainan), a few tanky monster bosses, and then Gabriel as Vecta. When that is done, the game goes on with some weird shrines, just as its predecessor. If you struggle through them and their repetitive tanky Vecta bosses, you get to the most expected plot motive, you could use: Sarai (the little girl that walks around with Dorothy) and Selka get abducted by PoH and you have to go through the Obsidia Castle and complete some “riddles” on the way. When you’ve done that, you’ll have to defeat PoH (again) and then fight against Gabriel in multiple “phases”, or better called: repeated attack button mashing. When that is done and you survived (or skipped) the credits, you’ll land at the Epilogue, which is actually made really good as an ‘Where are they now’ segment. That’s for how the story goes.

After Spoiler Part:
Pros:
- (almost all) Original Characters from old Games are included in this.
- Dialogue is interesting and doesn’t fail (for the most time) to deliver emotions
- Interesting Original Character(s)
- Great Epilogue (with an ‘Where are they now’ Explanation for every SAO Character, even for the Fatal Bullet Protagonist)
- Many different Weapons
- Gallery is Great (as always)
- Good Sound Design
- Many Cutscenes (if you prefer games without many Cutscenes, don’t buy or skip) which are pretty well animated
- No major bugs (game breaking) or so (in my 46 Hours of Playtime/the whole game)
- (MUCH hope for the DLCs Content wise and Story wise)

Neither (for me):
- Open World is built similar to Hollow Fragment, Labyrinth Style (and not empty square like Skyrim for example. FYI, I love Skyrim but its open world feels extremely empty)
- Graphics are the same as in Lycoris, though I prefer the Fatal Bullet/Hollow Realization Graphics much more
- Story is often predictable
- Holy Arts are in the game, but not really needed and pretty well hidden in the menu

Cons:
- Story feels rushed at some points
- Missing Weapon Proficiency
- (with Proficiency combined) Good Skill Trees
- Dating (Chatting and stuff like that) with Characters is missing, even though it has been in every other (except Lost Song and AW vs SAO)
- EX Skills missing (again)
- Too many tanky boss fights (example: you deal 600 Damage with weapon, boss has 1.5 Million to 7 Million Health)
- Original Characters Medina and Rogu from Lycoris (personal Thing between me and Lycoris)
- Haven’t found any Swords between Chapter 5 and 10 (had to backtrack to a special monster to get a good Sword after tanky boss fight)
- Less control over your NPC Teammates than in predecessors

Epilogue:
My final rating for the game (this far) is 4.5/10 BUT I will still recommend it, because I still have hope for the DLCs. Lycoris disappointed me with its DLCs, so it can still turn the tables to the better or worse. I will update the review once I completed the DLCs (when they come out).

When you want to buy the game, I’d recommend to buy it for 20-30$ max. (without DLCs)
If you look for SAO games you should buy or should not buy, here is my ranking of them.
Tier List so far:
1/2. SAO Fatal Bullet / Hollow Realization
3. SAO Hollow Fragment
4. SAO Integral Factor (F2P mobile game, also on Steam)
5. SAO Lost Song
6. SAO Last Recollection
7. SAO Alicization Lycoris
8. Accel World VS SAO

I personally just wish for a second Hollow Realization or Fatal Bullet, but instead we get Lycoris and now this… Anyway I hope this helps you with whether or not you should buy it.

This is a lazy cashgrab and an insult to SAO fans.
Button mash to win. Don't think, just mash.
Linear. Push the control stick forward from point A to point B and that's it.
Almost exactly the same as the war of the underworld anime arc. Just watch it instead of paying $60 on this.
Nothing to unlock and leveling seems meaningless. All of the sword skills are unlocked by default with the exception of a few ultimate skills that seem to require endless grinding to achieve.
The devs LOVE Kirito. Like way way way too much. If you don't have him in your party you're probably missing about 70% of your team's damage output.
Buy able weapons are pointless. From as long as I was willing to play, all of the weapons are worse than the starting weapons and weapons cannot be upgraded.
Stemming from my last point, money is useless. No reason to buy weapons, no reason to buy consumables. The only time I ever used money is to buy the starting accessories, then I just got more from chests guarded by weak enemies.

Don't play this. Lycoris was better and Lycoris was also bad.

This is half the game Alicization Lycoris was. It feels like a hastily thrown together game.


-The world design is like it was back in Hollow Fragment; linear, simple, low detail. The world does not feel lived in like in AL.

-There's a lot of mundane filler quests as part of the main story to pad game-play length.

-There's half as much voice acting as the previous game.

-The enemies take way too long to kill.

-The Finishing Moves are poorly animated and anticlimactic. They are just not powerful and it usually takes 4 or more to defeat enemies.

-There's no 1v1 duel mode like in AL.

-The Sacred Arts are just AoE Circles with different status effects instead of each being unique.

-No more blacksmith to upgrade weapons and gear.

-There's no reason to buy weapons or equipment as the default weapons usually have the highest stats.

-The events with allies are just short dialogue interactions with 2d characters; there's no quest or anything attached to them like in previous games. And the markers are just floating in air, not even over the person's head.

-The dating system is gone; the only way to raise affinity is through combat which takes forever.


The story is on par with any other SAO game, I thoroughly enjoyed it; the end credits got me teary eyed, perfect sendoff for those who've played all the games.

Only buy for the game-verse story if your a Die-Hard SAO fan.

Game-play wise, they dropped the ball; probably because they had to learn how to use a new engine (UE4) and because of the bad press that AL got on release. To be fair it does run great (constant 60 fps) but I would prefer gameplay over fps any day.

I guess the execs were hesitant to invest as much time & money in this game; which is a shame because I really wanted to love this game.

Fluid combat, the conclusion to the Sword Art Online "gameverse" story, as well as a solid performance on PC (thanks, Unreal Engine!) may attract SAO fans - but too much grinding, combined with enemies with too much HP, will push most of them away.
It's not a bad game, it's just not one I can recommend. If you want to buy this, then do it when it's at least 50% off.

Score: 6/10

I bought this game so i could shoot kirito in the face

If you liked SAOAL, this is like 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
Some fun can be had here, but it's real disappointing compared to SAOAL...
Some nitpicks:
level from SAOAL doesn't carry over. like really? couldn't even just make you start at Level 100 Like SAOHF?
No weapon Upgrading.
Character Outfits are even more lackluster than SAOAL.
Character Creation is the same as SAOAL, minus all the outfits that you had in it...
Games doesn't even tell you that Accuracy is in this game until you finish the main story. it's just renamed to Combat Fidelity and it functions largely the same as it did in SAOAL, just now instead of missing all your attacks if it's too low, your damage gets nerfed.
Quest log is trash.
Cooking is gone, Fishing is Gone, Smithing is gone. Gathering is gone.

All in all, this should've been a DLC pack for AL, rather than a brand new game...

EDIT after an Additional 23 hours: my opinion has only decreased since. like why are all the end game bosses tanks, this isn't an Underworld isn't an MMO, it's a simulated reality, so why are there MMO-like raid bosses in this game. this shouldn't even have had any MMO-esque systems in it and should've just been an Action RPG... Seriously, the divine beasts take WAY too long to kill...

"System Call：Delete game , Refund , Discharge"。

This game... As a GREAT fan of SAO, Both the anime and the video games, I feel betrayed by the lack of vision, of quality, of innovation, of CHARACTER this series has followed. I've played almost every SAO game in some version since Hollow Fragment (no mobile games, and I missed Accel world vs. SAO, I still want to play it). Hollow fragment has a few issues, but had a few core ideas, following the Anime, that made things fit together and work. The world-building was genuine, The elements of the dungeon crawl, of weapons and experience, the core elements of the game were done well. It Felt right for the scope of the game.

Each game that came after followed the next stage of the Anime, putting elements into each sequel, some for better, some that missed the mark, but the games still felt true to the series. I feel the first REAL breakthrough was Hollow Realization. Hollow Realization is still my favorite of the series, Where the game design, storyline, mechanics, multiplayer, EVERYTHING came together into one of the two best SAO releases, with the other being Fatal Bullet. This game hit all the right notes for me in progression, in hitting all the right notes, in the immersion of the setting. Fatal Bullet was also amazing, but less for the story, and more for the pristine and fun action oriented game play, and variety. The fun factor of Fatal bullet hit other happy motes for me, and the dungeon play was new and interesting.

Then Alicization Lycoris came. This was an attempt to pull everything together into a new game, with all the best aspects of all the previous games and meld them into one. This was a mixed bag. For the most part, I enjoyed Lycoris, but the balance of this was upended. From buff stacking, to the almost complete imbalance of magics, the destruction of any strategic character building, or branching avenues for character builds, The interest waned for me a bit just from the sheer monotony of "Play these buffs, and these items or you suck" mentality and design. I played for a long time, and just left after due to being so restricted.

Last Recollection, I was hoping would fix these issues, and breathe some fresh air into the final installment of the SAO game series, and make things fun again.

The ball was dropped. HARD.

The game tried to balance things, but removed all skill-based challenge, one of the CORE CONCEPTS of the series. Levels are now linear, with little to no exploration. Thing feel on rails almost in direction. Bosses are now damage sponges that rely less on skills and more on a dodge, approach, mash x, repeat. The SKILL of the game, the learning curve was not difficult to learn was switched with an ease of use, dumbed down version of the system, replaced with more flash, less substance. The content feels like the entire thing is either a straight port of a entry level version of Lycoris, or a downgrade of assets, writing, and character. I've meticulously played many many hours in the previous titles.

This is the first where i played through a few chapters, and felt my interest just wane with every new area. Things got BORING. The scaling in levels, is boring. The skill trees and earning new skills, boring. the new feeling of wonder with new discoveries, boring. I found the gear, the skills, the magic, the SAO experience just wasn't there. I didn't even get to the end game, because the journey to get there feels bleak, grey, and uninteresting. The STORYLINE is boring, Nothing that draws you into the plot. You don't explore a vast world, Everything is a railroaded path, not an area to traverse and explore. The game is just not what it should be,

I almost think the Endgame is where all the content was loaded. because the entire ordeal of getting there is a slogfest of monotony. It's just not really fun.

I put down this game in disappointment. It just didn't hold my interest, and for that. for the first time, I can't even recommend picking this game up. I feel it was a mistake to put so much faith in this disappointing last chapter, even pre-ordering it in anticipation of finally closing the story of this separated arc of SAO.

I wasted my money. I maybe would have picked this up a lot later when it was on sale for cheap... but it's not worth the full price of a triple a game.

A great story that just fizzles out into bleah. Aquria and Bandai Namco should be really ashamed.